Monthly Archives: April 2012

The Cloth Diaper Bug

Aside

I wanted to cloth diaper my first.  I really did.  I thought about it for awhile, never did any research, and then she got here, and I was all mind blown with new motherhood- and incorporating one more lifestyle change MIGHT have sent me into an anxiety filled loony breakdown.  I didn’t do the new mommy thing very well.  LOL. 

BUT I’m having a second kiddo and I SWEAR I have this parent thing DOWN.  I mean- I mess up all the time, but I’ve managed to raise a very smart four year old opinionated little princess punk so I’m betting  hoping that I am able to bypass that dive into a slightly comatose bewilderment with this new baby like I did the first time around.. and plus- HOW freaking cute are these diapers??

BumGenius Albert design. Want.

I just ordered these from Zulily.com! LotusBumz pocket diaper

I interact with a lot of mommies.  There is a very large spectrum of types that I’ve encountered throughout my years of meeting new people and gossiping on mommy support forums.  Some of my dearest friends I actually met online first!  I’ve come to learn that most of the people I get along with are mix of everything: single moms, working moms, hippy moms, mainstream moms, formula feeders, breast is best feeders, organic food vs processed food moms, disposable diaper moms, cloth diaper moms…  we come in all shapes in sizes.  :)

I fall into the middle of all of that somewhere.  There is a part of me that fantasizes about being a total granola hippy.  I’ll admit it.  I’d love to live a totally organic, non processed lifestyle while wearing my babies, breastfeeding,  cloth diapering, and picking wonderful organic foods out of my compost fertilized garden.  In this fantasy I  drive an electric car and wear hemp clothing with flowers in my hair and no shoes.  OK ok I’m kidding.  A little.

I really DO want to strive to live a healthier, cleaner, greener lifestyle- but here’s the truth:

I work, I take classes, I have a kid, I have a husband, I have hobbies- I’m a busy girl- So my reality is that I drive an SUV, I eat processed crap food on occasion, I recycle whenever possible, I always forget the freaking cloth shopping bags at HOME when I’m at the store (grr.), and I wasn’t able to breastfeed so my kid was raised on formula and now processed crap food.  yeah. I am kinda a failure at being my fantasy hippy.

BUT- baby steps right?!

So back to cloth diapering.  I have some friends who do this and were a fantastic resource.  My good friend, Jill, over at Baby Rabies has quite a few posts on the subject.  Here’s a breakdown of the best cloth diapering posts here.  This site was a huge resource for me and it helps that I can ask questions any time and Jill is awesome at responding quickly.  And PLUS she’s hosting a twitter party with Thanks Mama on the subject on May 8th!

I also have another sweet friend who blogs at the Froggy and The Mouse (omg her boys are adorable) who is also a newbie cloth diaper mom so she has been answering a bunch of my questions as well.  Thanks Steph!

Other resources I’m using?

The Diaper Jungle

Kelly’s Closet

All About Cloth Diapers

The Nappy Shoppe

You Tube

As well as others.  I’ve been stalking cloth diaper sites for awhile now…and I feel I still know nothing.  LOL.  But I’ve ordered six pocket diapers that are currently en route to my house at this moment!!  I’m very excited!  And can you believe that you can actually order cloth diapers from Target??

The totally cute diapers I ordered from Target! BumGenius 4.0 Pocket Diaper

Super score for me since I have a Target addiction and a couple of gift cards!

So this is going to be fun!  And interesting!  And I’m sure my family is super stoked about learning how to change a cloth diaper!!

AND if I can find a decent pattern- perhaps I can even learn how to sew my own.  Maybe. We shall see.  That’s a pretty lofty goal.

In the meantime, though, I’m going to work on building my cloth diaper stash and practice on my kiddo’s baby dolls.

 

 

Tip Me Tuesday Submission!

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One of my favorite sites, Tip Junkie, is hosting Tip Me Tuesday.  This site is awesome for tips, tutorials, and ideas.  Today is the weekly link party where you can find all sorts of projects and ideas from all over Bloggyland.  I’ve decided to add my DIY Boys Room Fabric Artwork Tutorial!

Click the link below to check it out!

DIY Boys Room Fabric Artwork Tutorial

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I finally finished the piece of artwork I’ve been thinking about for months.  Whew.  Check that off my project list.

So back in my nursery dreaming days of the second trimester this photo popped in my Pinterest feed:

I immediately decided I wanted to incorporate it somehow- and it’s kind of been a part of the underlying “theme” to little man’s nursery.  I had no idea how to recreate it- but knew I wanted to use some fabric I had and create some sort of artwork.  So here’s the finished product!

Supplies:

  • plain white canvas (Hobby Lobby $5.99 for two)
  • tape
  • Microsoft Word or any program that allows you to create and print text
  • Sharpies
  • Fabric markers
  • Fabric- *Cut fabric with enough left over so that it wraps around the canvas edges
  • Staple gun-  (or you can use furniture or tacks if you don’t have a gun)
Here are my supplies!

 

 

 

 

 

And the fabric markers can be found at Hobby Lobby or any craft store.

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions:

Type your saying into your computer program and choose the font.  I used Microsoft Word and the font was 375pt Brady Bunch Remastered font.  I downloaded the font free off the internets!

After you print out your saying, you will need to piece it together on top of the canvas in order to get an idea of how you want your letter placement.

Use the tape to piece all of the letters together.

 

 

Next tape the entire piece to a window with a lot of light.

I measured my fabric out by placing the canvas on top of the fabric and cutting around the edges- making sure that there was enough fabric to wrap around the canvas.

Place your fabric right side up over the letters and tape the fabric tightly to the window.

Now you can trace the letters with your sharpie.  I like using the sharpie for tracing rather than the fabric markers because the sharpie created a cleaner and sharper outline.

Next I wrapped the fabric around the canvas and stapled it tightly into place.  If you don’t have a nifty neighbor with a staple gun like I do- then you can probably use tacks and a hammer to get the job done.

After my fabric was secure- I then used the fabric markers to fill in the letters.  You can use the sharpie to fill in the letters- which I initially did- but I discovered that the sharpie doesn’t color as evenly as the fabric markers and I liked the darker letter better.

Finished project!!  Yay!!

The nursery is almost entirely complete!  I hope to post full nursery photos soon.

Happy decorating!

Elizabeth

It’s a Boy Thing- Baby Shower!

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I have such a wonderful family!  My sister, Jessica, and very good friend, Amanda, threw me a spectacular shower over Easter Weekend.  They did such a wonderful job incorporating my ideas from the nursery- I thought I’d show off their skills on my blog!

My nursery theme is a complete hodgepodge of ideas.  I’ve named it “It’s a Boy Thing” based off of some cardstock I purchased for the hanging wall letters.  The design is… pretty much anything having to do with being a boy and colorful will go in this room- This allows me to really add ANYTHING without fear of clashing.  So with that idea in mind, my sister and good friend decided to throw a family shower based on this “theme”.

Take a look!

And for the yummies…

I absolutely DIED when I saw this cake.  Dead.  Look how cute and creative this cake is!!  And I used to wear converse in high school so this meant even more to me!  Thanks to my great friend, Amanda, and her cake baking talents!

She even made coordinating Gluten free cupcakes for my family members that can’t have cake!

The food was an explosion of Pinterest boards and ideas.  All of it was very very good.

Pretzel buttons

The recipe for the candy above can be found here.  I warn you though- it’s addicting!

Cucumber Feta bites

Recipe for the cucumber feta bites is found here.

Bite Size Greek Salad

The recipe for the Greek salad bites can be found here.

The party was excellent- Baby Z came home with adorable outfits, pacifiers, blankies, and bibs.  He’s going to be one well dressed little man!

I was so amazed with how cute and colorful everything turned out!  They really did an amazing job with decor and design- and the best part was- almost all of the design elements were colorful toys, puzzles, and onesies that we were able to bring home and put in his nursery!  How clever!

Thanks for reading!

~Elizabeth